Same great patterns, new name, slightly new website – still just as awesome!

The felt wings pattern isn’t actually new. Its been around for a while, but we, on the Ambassador Team, were asked to help promote it for its re-release!

Oh and what is the Ambassador Team?

Well its this new group that has been started up that gets patterns in exchange for promotion!

A win, win for me since I love the Rebecca Page patterns to begin with!

So when I heard about the Felt Wings pattern (Aff link) I thought to myself….. “It’s Little Mister T’s birthday next week…. and he LOVES being a bird!” So after finding out from his mom that Blue Jays are his favorite…

Here are our Blue Jay inspired wings just in time for his birthday party!

This pattern is great to do as a project with a child, or a child in mind! It can be tailored so many ways with different shaped wings and different colors! (We stayed pretty traditional here.) How fun would it be to get the kids involved in picking the shapes, colors, sizes, and arrangement of the wings?!

Over all, the pattern delivers what it says!

I would highly suggest though doing the custom sized bands as the generic ones are quite small.

I also altered my bands and ended up making them out of strips of felt instead of cotton after not liking the way they had sewn up.

One last thing…

If you toddler hates wearing costumes, give it a year or two before making this for them! Little Mister A was beside himself as I was trying to get some modeled shots…

And if you want the whole patterns (its so worth it), then it is on sale till July 13!

My first test pattern I didn’t take any “final” pictures of, but I did snap some cute pictures while going to visit the British Farmer swathing oats.

My second and final version I used up some of my precision anchor and watercolor fabric from the first preorder at Kiss My Stash Fabric Co to make a summer version.

For this, I used the Bunny Bottoms pants, and cut the romper on the shorts pants line. I also used the shorts band suggested in that pattern. There is also a “tight” cuff, which I think I would use next time instead.

I adore how they turned out!

They have been worn out and about a few times now and already have been loved to the point of stains! *insert tears here*

(We also had some tears doing this photo shoot)

So while I am off trying to get the stains out of Little Mister A’s romper, you should be off buying the pattern!

In my head, “grow with me” clothing just meant throwing on some long cuffs and be done with it.

It wasn’t until I started to help test the NEWApple Tree Grow With Me Romper that is yet to be released that I realized that time, effort, and trial and error that truly goes into getting a piece of clothing to fit through multiple sizes!

That being said, I absolute LOVE the first OFFICIAL grow with me piece of clothing I made for Little Mister A and so happy he will be able to wear it for a long time!

I used this gorgeous French Terry in Royal Antler print from Northern Rose Fabrics (on preorder until July 7)!

The print is just jaw dropping (at least for us country folk). And the French Terry is stretchier than most I have sewn with before, which is perfect for the grow with me aspect of this hoodie!

The stripes are a super soft yarn dyed bamboo that I picked up from Kiss My Stash a while back.

HEY!

That means that everything about this hoodie is Canadian!

Fitting since tomorrow is Canada day 😉

PST!!! If you go join the Apple Tree Facebook group right now they have a 30% off coupon good until July 5!

To be honest, I picked these patterns largely in part because I already had them cut and assembled in the correct sizes and wanted to cheat that step.

I think they look pretty cute as a set together though!

The fabric is a polyester spandex blend with 4 way stretch. It is niiiiiice and smooth! But was super easy to line up and cut straight – the fabric didn’t shift around on itself!

Haven’t never sewn with fabric quite like this before so my sewing machine and I fought a little bit to get the right flow, but we settled on a short, narrow zigzag stitch and successfully sewed both shirts with relative ease! (And a 1/4″ seam allowance on both to boot!)

If you haven’t heard of Barncat Knit Fabrics before you should go check them out! It is an America group but she was able to ship to me for an okay price AND I wasn’t charged duty when it arrived! (Might just be coincidence) Also, it came way faster than I expected seeing as it had to make it through customs!

This was to match their Unisex Bubble Shorts pattern that has already been a hit for the last little while.

And what is a bundle without a doll pattern?!

So now you can get all three!

Personally, I hate shorts on myself. But I loved the last Mummykins and Me pattern so much that I had to give these ones a shot and boy am I glad that I did!

The shorts come with three different length options, a binding or cuff option, and bubble or straight leg.

I made a size 3XL with the shortest length, binding, straight leg. I LOVE this length!

Now please forgive the pictures… the only time we had to do them was when Little Mister A was just down right sick and miserable!!!

Despite that, I hope you can tell how awesome these shorts are. I can’t wait to make a few more pairs!

I think I will actually pull the fast, crappy stitches out of my muslin and sew them up proper with a lining because the bad sheet I used actually sewed up really cute! (Not cute enough to show you though, they are see through without a lining in them!)

All the fabric and notions used for my shorts were from my local thrift shop!

I love being able to upcycle, re-purpose, and reuse things that might other wise end up in a landfill somewhere!

Be sure to check out some other BLOG-SPIRATION of the other lovely testers:

I am so excited to share this pattern with all of you! It was a huge accomplishment for me and the wait for it to be released has been KILLING.ME!

Now… look out!!

Here comes another pattern I just finished testing!

(Can you tell that this has become a new hobby of mine?)

If anyone is wondering HOW to become a pattern tester, this is what I did: join every sewing group on Facebook that you can possibly think of (this is also a massive ENABLER cause it makes you want to buy ALL.THE.PATTERNS)! Over time, I started seeing designers putting out testing calls. One by one, I started applying, and over the short span of a few months I have already tested for: Thread Riding Hood, Blank Slate Patterns, Twig & Tale, Goober Pea Pattern Designs and now Gracious Threads!

The compensation for testing is always slightly different but at the very least you get a free pattern out of the deal! So if you are looking for a way unique way to build your pattern collection this could be it!

You also get to meet some awesome, helpful designers along the way!

Testing patterns has really started to stretch my abilities.

Prior to this pattern I would have considered myself an adventurous intermediate, but while I tackled this pattern I sure felt like a beginner!

This pattern is not for the faint of heart, beginner seamstress (unless you are like me who likes to pick a pattern and dive in head first – throw caution to the wind!). It is actually labeled as an intermediate/advanced pattern which I would agree with!

Front fly

Front of pants

Back of pants – welt pockets

New skills that I had to attempt for this pattern:

Sewing pockets

Sewing welt pockets

Adding a zipper fly

If you have never added a zipper fly before, there is a great tutorial here at Liana Jeans Sew Along. (I only messed mine up once, I was very proud!)

The welt pockets on the other hand… lets just say I should have practiced them a few times before sewing them on my pants. Please don’t look at them too closely! (Everyone has to start somewhere, right?!)

Oh but my pockets turned out great! I think next time it would be fun to make the back piece of the pocket in a contrasting color for a nice little POP!

Hey, you!

Yes, I’m cute!

Over all I am extremely happy with how my pants turned out and OH.SO.PROUD that I was able to pull them off!

I will definitely be making more in the future and add the cuff option to make them easily folded up! The good news is Little Mister A just fits into the smallest size of this patterns (size 2) so I can continue to make it for years to come (up to size 12!).

And I always love have a couple good WOVEN patterns to use!

Thinking about the next pair in a cute quilting cotton cause…. why not?!?!

Fun fact about these pants: after the testing period was over we found out the pattern was being showcased in the One Thimble Magazine! (affiliate link) Head on over to get your copy of the magazine or just the individual pattern!! Available starting on May 12!

Done pictures, let me out now!

Bum shot!

Playing with tractors, approved!

Side note: they DO fit over Little Mister A’s cloth diapers, but the rise it a little low because of all the junk in his trunk (a very common problem for him and pants). They would fit better over disposables (which we rarely use) but as long as I put him in a onesie the low rise at the back isn’t an issue!

(The first original round of pictures was taken way back when it was snowy out. Now that it is finally spring we were able to get a couple action shots outside too!)

P.S. All the fabric for these pants was purchased from my local thrift shop! I even got the zipper for a whopping $0.10!!

The cotton was a very, very thin weave, so it needed something warmer on the inside.

My options were a nice off white flannel, or this blue argyle flannel. Since the jacket is fully reversible I didn’t really want Little Mister A to have a WHITE jacket….

Cause lets be honest, it wouldn’t STAY white!

Argyle for the win!

While the two don’t go together perfectly, I hope you don’t think they clash. I think they turned out cute together.

(All this make me think of is ‘it’s a rainy day in London town’)

If I can whip something up in an afternoon and the British Farmer likes it then I know I am on the right track (he is my biggest critic!).

The British Farm told me that at first the thought it was a jacket we had been given or bought, then realized I must have made it when he recognized the flannel!

Little Mister A is styling a 3T (due to the girth of his tummy). I actually like the additional length of the body on him, and although the sleeves are long, he will grow into it and I think they are cute rolled up!

The longest part of this pattern was cutting and assembling it!

Am I the only one who feels like they are back in elementary school when they are assembling patterns?!

Unlike the last jacket I sewed, there were very few pieces doing the basic version. It was fast to trace the pattern and cut out the fabric.

In general, the pattern sewed up like a breeze and the only hiccup I had was when I tried to continue on without reading the steps and sewed the reversible sleeves together wrong! In total, it took me an hour and 45min (would have been an hour and a half had I not needed to stitch rip).

This is a nice basic pattern with plenty of different options from zippers to snaps to velcro to trim! You can totally customize it! (Personally I just love snaps, it makes everything so easily reversible!)

I can see myself sewing up a bunch of these for nice, light summer jackets at the lake!